Feb/March. Difficult decisions to make

These are crunch months for me, whilst we face the prospect of 4 more games in February, and at least 5 in March, Leicester have 13 games between now and end of season.

We can reduce our pile up by making some simple decisions, play youth team in Champions League, play the same team in the FA Cup, save the first choice eleven for the Premier League.

Many have mooted that this is our best chance in years to win the league, many have said how we need to make sacrifices of playing style and stars for the pursuit of the trophy, in extreme circumstances some have talked about replacing Wenger with the repugnant Mourinho (yeah I know he’s a “winner”…..but at what cost?).

Is sacrificing the FA Cup 3peat and any chance of progress in the Champions League worth a possibility of winning the league?

Gooner in Exile

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2016 at 10:04 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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@Raddy – disagree that we have the squad – yes if Jack, Santi and Welbz were all firing 100%, but they’re not. Think we can win the league, but need to win majority of remaining games using all of our top players. UCL is not going to happen and I agree that fringe players should have a go.

Afternoon all, sorry not much to say, although interestingly Arsene suggested yesterday that too much time between games is sometimes more difficult that when the games come thick and fast. I suppose that’s a bit of mind games from Arsene but to some extents it holds true, if you’ve had a bad result sometimes there is nothing better than a game in two days to put it right, but if you’re flying and winning week in week out I don’t suppose anyone cares how long between games because there is just a positive attitude around the place, if you had 5/6 days to over scrutinise a bad result I can see that being a problem.

Long and short of it is Leicester players and manager simply have nothing to fear, if they stay in top 4 it will be a success, even if they get into Europa League you could argue for Leicester that it was a great season. But to win the league, despite them now being favourites with bookies and pundits if they don’t win it no one will be surprised and there won’t be an over reaction from fans to bad results, I think Spuds also sit in this position, it is us City and ManUre where the knives are out to dissect every bad result.

“Nobody has been in awe of Leicester or given them respect and tried to shut up shop – and nobody, apart from Arsenal in September, seems to have been able to match their intensity and their attacking play.

Arsenal whacked Leicester 5-2 at the King Power Stadium, so I would be gobsmacked if the Gunners alter their possession-based attacking approach when they play them again at Emirates Stadium on Sunday”

Of course the Gunners will not alter their possession-based attacking approach. What are they supposed to do – show fear and park a bus trying to stop the minnows?

But Eddie that sums up the problem for us, we have to attack and therefore will be playing into Leicester’s hands. We are the side that needs to win more than they do. If we decided to sit back and let the ball ping around on the half way line I have no doubt Ranieri would do the same and be happy to walk away with a point. They it would appear give away the ball an awful lot, so we need to capitalise on that.

we have to attack full stop. We don’t have plan B 🙂
Danny Murphy mentioned two important aspects of Leicester’s success – running full speed at fragmented defences on counter and the links they formed on the flanks. So what we need to do is present solid defence and break the links on the sides. But, as DM also said – Wenger doesn’t spend much time analysing other teams

We are better technically. We have far better players than Leicester. We are playing at home. We need this win more than they do. Need, not want. Foxes probably want it more.

Read your work much earlier in the day on my telephone and was itching to respond, but it would have taken too long and made me cross.

You’re right, we won’t win all three competitions, and for that reason, I say play our strongest XI in every game. Here’s the thinking. Because we won’t win every game, we’ll drop out of contention in various competitions along the way. So this will be a natural cull in terms of needing to rotate.

Let’s face it, we could be effectively out of two competitions in the next 10 days.

Reports that Gabriel missed training today and is a major doubt for tomoz with Merts expected to start. A little bit worrying with the pace Leicester have on the break, but it’s not like Merts has never played against pace.

Merts did start in the 5-2 win earlier in the season against the same side.

Read that too. Want another clean sheet and a couple of goals will do nicely. That Theo picture makes me want to puke. Guy has never been worth what Arsenal have paid except for the fact his is counted as homegrown.
Can’t wait to see them in San Jose, CA versus the MLS all stars. The stadium is world class and only seats 20k: everyone has a great view. Unreal that they are coming as the spuds are linked with the SJ Earthquakes…Told them to change partners.

It was only a couple of seasons ago when fans were panicking because Theo was out injured and we had a complete lack of pace in the side. I also remember at the beginning of the season he had something like 13 goals in 15 games.

He’s by no means a complete player, but he has been a decent player for us on the RW. I think he has shot himself in the foot a bit by wanting to show he is a striker. He is now having to prove his worth at the position whilst playing in the first 11 in big matches where he is expected to score. He’s also had quite a few injuries recently which have effected his form.

He can still be a very useful player for us but he needs to get his confidence back. Problem for him now is Welbeck is due to return which could reduce his chances of playing CF even more.

It’s an important period for Theo as we need players to step up. Either he contributes big to the end of the season or he continues on his current form and finds himself down the pecking order when Wenger eventually finds a quality striker.

A litlle thing to ponder on, Theo costs us fans, 5,000 season tickets a year.
10 players on that salary would wipe out all our attendance revenue.
It’s not just the clubs fleecing the fans, it’s the players taking the piss and when ex players like Alan Shearer start agreeing with the fans being ripped off it shows what hypocrites they are/ were.
Perhaps a post from someone with a bit of time.

We have to go for everything. I am a great admirer of the Kamikazi. Those sorry fools knew how to die. I would have been one of them, expect I would have flown my plane in the other direction to surrender. Hopefully, I would be afforded the opportunity by the enemy to give away my comrades positions for money and women who dont mind a bloke who has to pay for it.

What’s this Theo witch hunt? If you lot were alive 400 years ago you would be the mob screaming Witch at poor scihizophrenics who have no choice in conversing with the Uncle no one has ever met.

You should be ashamed of yourselves. One day you could be in the shit and when you call to your Uncle for help, he will spell out he only assists when your paronia tells you Henry Kissinger holds you responsible for the Vietnam war.

Probably hire hitman Keith Cheqwin to assinate you.

Chequin tried to do me after Kissenger grassed that I helped topple the Iranian Shah. I only survived after bullshiting Cheqwin that I could get him a presenting job at the BBC wearing a thick sweater

I promised a family day out today…..in the words of Clay Davis “aaaah sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit”. So do I go for radio silence and watch on record? Probably going to be impossible, or do I take headphones so when walking round Castle Museum How to Train Your Dragons Exhibition I can pretend I’m listening to the guided tour?

Oh Dear Exile.
This is bad. Very bad. I had strong advice for Erik yesterday on this very subject, but I suspect your options are more limited. At least Mrs Erik knew she had married a weak man. Tricky.

Mr Motivator! A wonderful human being, who went from hell and back to save his family. A homeless, single parent who thought tooth and nail for his daughter. And now is working in Jamaica for poor kids. Love him.

Raddy – if you really love football than you should want Leicester back in the relegation zone. I haven’t watched many of their games, but if this is how they are winning points, then they are a disgrace, nothing beautiful about them